- Joined
- Nov 3, 2008
- Messages
- 5,113
- Reaction score
- 1,266
- Points
- 113
GopherLady's press conference notes from Jerry Kill's signing day conference:
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/132076?referrer_id=331171
Coach Kill started out by thanking everyone on his staff, the state of Minnesota, and everyone. They sold the University, the great state of Minnesota. It's very easy to sell our great state. I think we did well. We have 8 young men already on campus, working out and going to class. We feel very good about that. We're excited about the direction we're going.
On the Panhandle area - you just go back again. You are who you are in recruiting, we've always recruited there and we have a good reputation. We have a lot of ties there. You try to make sure you do a good job in recruiting, and not make mistakes and make sure they fit in well. We have good relationships there, and took advantage.
What happened here in the state of Minnesota, I couldn’t be more happy with. The high school coaches helped us. The kids helped each other. After Phillip Nelson came in, he talked to Andre, and fit in with the players on our team. Our players did a great job recruiting. Our players are our best recruiters, they will tell you the truth. They told them that if they don't go to class Coach Kill will get on them. We don't tell them that in recruiting, but the players will. The recruiting class you see here, I've been in every one of them's homes, and have had a live evaluation of them.
Academically - I wont mention names, but we had everybody who met our academic team. If I had a question on someone academically, I'd ask. I had one I had question on, and we passed on. We can't take academic chances. I know athletically, 6 out of 8 kids we brought in, 6 of them are some of the fastest guys on our team. Speed solves a lot of problems.
I feel good about where we're at. We really evaluated every kid that we brought in. I feel good about where we need to compete at in the Big 10. Andre McDonald, Harbison, KJ Maye and Isaac Fruechte, are 4 guys that can get it and go. People in the Big 10 will tell you they can run and are athletic. We have a lot of basketball players, explosive and fast. We have watched these kids in spring ball and basketball, we've spend a lot of time evaluating the kids we brought in.
Right now, we needed to recruit a team, with all the scholarships available. We won't have that next year. We only lost one Linebacker, so we didn’t have as much of a need there. We tried to recruit a team and need. Every once in a while, you don't turn down an athlete, because he's that good.
You'd like to keep them all. I haven't been here that long, I need to prove myself, I need to understand it. Our APR was so high, that was our strength. You're going to lose some kids due to competition. I had 2 people that came to my office that asked about their standing on the team, because of recruits, that's competition. We need to do a good job, or there will be someone else talking at the press conference. Recruiting started when we came in Monday the 1st day I started. 2 weeks ago I took a video and put it up on the screen, and I put up a documentary of what we did. I was saying the same things, to the same people, that I'm saying right now. Uncommon by Tony Dungy - that's what we're going to be, we're going to be uncommon in the Big 10.
If you look at the Super Bowl, they make a lot of money, but if you don't have a quarterback, you're not going to win. I'd rather have too many than not enough. I feel like we got 2 of the better quarterbacks in the Midwest.
When I took the job, we started working on the future. We're already working on the future right now, as we speak. You're never done. Always recruiting. We had a recruiting meeting 30 minutes ago. Sometimes the best kid you can recruit is a non-scholarship player. You're always on the search.
We talked to 3-4 youngsters that we'd wait until January to enroll, to build our program up. Last year, we talked to Bjorkland about those kind of things. It all worked out at the end of the day. Depends on injuries and things of that nature. We feel good, we've communicated with all the people we recruited and feel good about that.
We want Phillip and Mitch to compete with MarQueis - competition is good, it will make you better. I want every kid coming in to come in and play. We redshirted 60% of kids last year, but want them to make sure they can handle it academically and athletically. Sometimes you put a kid out there and they can play, but are not ready academically.
With 8 kids enrolling early, there is a trend, more kids are enrolling early, especially at QB. We need to be careful with that. They want to be competitive, but it's not always what they want to do. Marcus Jones was ready for that. Sometimes it speeds up the process of growing up, sometimes you need to have that HS experience. I'm not perfect, and sometimes I don't make perfect decisions, but I have mixed emotions on that.
Andre is a tremendous talent, I've coached a long time and we had him on the field, he learns quick. I want to make sure they want to come here, I don’t want to lose them. When I recruit, I don't tell them what they want to here - so we de-recruit them sometimes. You don’t know what's going to happen, but it just works out. You've all be on me to keep the best players in the state, so we need to be more patient. There's a whole different recruiting that happens here, than it does in the south. I can't take credit for it, I stayed lowed and let my staff work through the process. The great thing about Andre, he said there was no question this is what he wanted to do at the end of the day. There are some things you don't want to chase because you're never going to get it.
Phillip Nelson being compared to Chandler Harnish - Phillip runs a 4.52, and is 238 points, Chandler is probably not that fast. He's in there somewhere in that speed rank. There's certainly similar character wise. The kids here truly want to be here, they truly want to make a difference, they did a good of job recruiting as anybody, they wanted to be a part of it. We have a lot to sell here at the University of Minnesota, we are different from anybody else in the Big 10. It's beautiful, the lakes, the countryside, the city, the University. IF we can get them here on campus, we're going to get them. Our season ticket holders, our state, helped us get those kids when we brought them here on game days.
On Rebecca Kill coming on visits - my wife had to travel with me because the situation I'm in, she came because of my health situation. I love my wife, she loves me, but we've been together enough. She knows how to handle my seizures, I can't drive, I'm a self dependent person so that was very difficult for me. I need to be seizure free pretty quick, my wife has got me under a microscope, and that's a good thing.
I think we're going a good job recruiting, I've reached out to Coach Mason, who's been successful here, you want to reach out to people who have been at this level. Athletically this is the best recruiting class that we've ever recruited. Now it's our job to coach them. I've been MIA for the past month and a half, I want to give you everything you need and answer your questions (to the media).
The expectations for the 8 players here early, is getting them adjusted academically. You want to teach them what you're doing in your program, and on the field. When they start 2 a day camps, they're ahead of everybody else. We won't have that advantage next year, it was the way it fell scholarship wise. We won't be able to next year, and don’t want to. We got lucky on some kids at semester, that's highly unusual. To get talented youngsters and in that early, its unusual.
I turn around after this, and I have to go speak at the Big 10 meeting on Friday, then New York City to the Nike clinic, and it never ends. The greatest thing about what we do, it walking into a home and building a relationship that you may have for the rest of your life. It's all about relationships, just like we're doing here today. Meeting the kids and their families, you get to know them, because you can't coach kids all the same. Some you need to scream at, some you need to coddle. I'm not the guy that is right for taking over a 10-2 team, I like building things.
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/132076?referrer_id=331171
Coach Kill started out by thanking everyone on his staff, the state of Minnesota, and everyone. They sold the University, the great state of Minnesota. It's very easy to sell our great state. I think we did well. We have 8 young men already on campus, working out and going to class. We feel very good about that. We're excited about the direction we're going.
On the Panhandle area - you just go back again. You are who you are in recruiting, we've always recruited there and we have a good reputation. We have a lot of ties there. You try to make sure you do a good job in recruiting, and not make mistakes and make sure they fit in well. We have good relationships there, and took advantage.
What happened here in the state of Minnesota, I couldn’t be more happy with. The high school coaches helped us. The kids helped each other. After Phillip Nelson came in, he talked to Andre, and fit in with the players on our team. Our players did a great job recruiting. Our players are our best recruiters, they will tell you the truth. They told them that if they don't go to class Coach Kill will get on them. We don't tell them that in recruiting, but the players will. The recruiting class you see here, I've been in every one of them's homes, and have had a live evaluation of them.
Academically - I wont mention names, but we had everybody who met our academic team. If I had a question on someone academically, I'd ask. I had one I had question on, and we passed on. We can't take academic chances. I know athletically, 6 out of 8 kids we brought in, 6 of them are some of the fastest guys on our team. Speed solves a lot of problems.
I feel good about where we're at. We really evaluated every kid that we brought in. I feel good about where we need to compete at in the Big 10. Andre McDonald, Harbison, KJ Maye and Isaac Fruechte, are 4 guys that can get it and go. People in the Big 10 will tell you they can run and are athletic. We have a lot of basketball players, explosive and fast. We have watched these kids in spring ball and basketball, we've spend a lot of time evaluating the kids we brought in.
Right now, we needed to recruit a team, with all the scholarships available. We won't have that next year. We only lost one Linebacker, so we didn’t have as much of a need there. We tried to recruit a team and need. Every once in a while, you don't turn down an athlete, because he's that good.
You'd like to keep them all. I haven't been here that long, I need to prove myself, I need to understand it. Our APR was so high, that was our strength. You're going to lose some kids due to competition. I had 2 people that came to my office that asked about their standing on the team, because of recruits, that's competition. We need to do a good job, or there will be someone else talking at the press conference. Recruiting started when we came in Monday the 1st day I started. 2 weeks ago I took a video and put it up on the screen, and I put up a documentary of what we did. I was saying the same things, to the same people, that I'm saying right now. Uncommon by Tony Dungy - that's what we're going to be, we're going to be uncommon in the Big 10.
If you look at the Super Bowl, they make a lot of money, but if you don't have a quarterback, you're not going to win. I'd rather have too many than not enough. I feel like we got 2 of the better quarterbacks in the Midwest.
When I took the job, we started working on the future. We're already working on the future right now, as we speak. You're never done. Always recruiting. We had a recruiting meeting 30 minutes ago. Sometimes the best kid you can recruit is a non-scholarship player. You're always on the search.
We talked to 3-4 youngsters that we'd wait until January to enroll, to build our program up. Last year, we talked to Bjorkland about those kind of things. It all worked out at the end of the day. Depends on injuries and things of that nature. We feel good, we've communicated with all the people we recruited and feel good about that.
We want Phillip and Mitch to compete with MarQueis - competition is good, it will make you better. I want every kid coming in to come in and play. We redshirted 60% of kids last year, but want them to make sure they can handle it academically and athletically. Sometimes you put a kid out there and they can play, but are not ready academically.
With 8 kids enrolling early, there is a trend, more kids are enrolling early, especially at QB. We need to be careful with that. They want to be competitive, but it's not always what they want to do. Marcus Jones was ready for that. Sometimes it speeds up the process of growing up, sometimes you need to have that HS experience. I'm not perfect, and sometimes I don't make perfect decisions, but I have mixed emotions on that.
Andre is a tremendous talent, I've coached a long time and we had him on the field, he learns quick. I want to make sure they want to come here, I don’t want to lose them. When I recruit, I don't tell them what they want to here - so we de-recruit them sometimes. You don’t know what's going to happen, but it just works out. You've all be on me to keep the best players in the state, so we need to be more patient. There's a whole different recruiting that happens here, than it does in the south. I can't take credit for it, I stayed lowed and let my staff work through the process. The great thing about Andre, he said there was no question this is what he wanted to do at the end of the day. There are some things you don't want to chase because you're never going to get it.
Phillip Nelson being compared to Chandler Harnish - Phillip runs a 4.52, and is 238 points, Chandler is probably not that fast. He's in there somewhere in that speed rank. There's certainly similar character wise. The kids here truly want to be here, they truly want to make a difference, they did a good of job recruiting as anybody, they wanted to be a part of it. We have a lot to sell here at the University of Minnesota, we are different from anybody else in the Big 10. It's beautiful, the lakes, the countryside, the city, the University. IF we can get them here on campus, we're going to get them. Our season ticket holders, our state, helped us get those kids when we brought them here on game days.
On Rebecca Kill coming on visits - my wife had to travel with me because the situation I'm in, she came because of my health situation. I love my wife, she loves me, but we've been together enough. She knows how to handle my seizures, I can't drive, I'm a self dependent person so that was very difficult for me. I need to be seizure free pretty quick, my wife has got me under a microscope, and that's a good thing.
I think we're going a good job recruiting, I've reached out to Coach Mason, who's been successful here, you want to reach out to people who have been at this level. Athletically this is the best recruiting class that we've ever recruited. Now it's our job to coach them. I've been MIA for the past month and a half, I want to give you everything you need and answer your questions (to the media).
The expectations for the 8 players here early, is getting them adjusted academically. You want to teach them what you're doing in your program, and on the field. When they start 2 a day camps, they're ahead of everybody else. We won't have that advantage next year, it was the way it fell scholarship wise. We won't be able to next year, and don’t want to. We got lucky on some kids at semester, that's highly unusual. To get talented youngsters and in that early, its unusual.
I turn around after this, and I have to go speak at the Big 10 meeting on Friday, then New York City to the Nike clinic, and it never ends. The greatest thing about what we do, it walking into a home and building a relationship that you may have for the rest of your life. It's all about relationships, just like we're doing here today. Meeting the kids and their families, you get to know them, because you can't coach kids all the same. Some you need to scream at, some you need to coddle. I'm not the guy that is right for taking over a 10-2 team, I like building things.
